Hawaii
THE Royal Hawaiian is known as the "Pink Palace," but it was the "Red Carpet" that manager Thelma Kam rolled out for Scott Butler and his family, visiting from Kentucky. Imagine having cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, immune deficiencies, muscular dystrophy and cancer -- all rolled into one. That's basically the fate of Butler, 22, who has Ataxis-Telangiectasia, or A-T for short. CBS will be featuring Scott and his family on its "Early Show" Week of Wishes on May 25. The Butler family stayed in the Kamehameha Suite and were given a private tour of Pearl Harbor by the Navy. A surprise not in CBS' script took place at the Royal's luau Monday when birthday boy and ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman joined Butler and his family. Mom Leann Butler says Scott is now a huge Rodman fan ... Scott Butler’s VIP
visit includes
Rodman chatIN the old days, British sailors were allotted a tot of grog per day. You simply don't find booze of any kind on U.S. Navy ships today, but that's without factoring in a few hundred journalists and guests from around the country who'll be attending Monday's world premiere of "Pearl Harbor," Disney's self-proclaimed blockbuster, on board the USS Stennis. You've got to have a tot or two for those folks to sip along with the buffet being prepared by Glenn Chu of Indigo. Trust me, they will. Being loaded on board the floating movie palace will be 78 cases of wine and 115 cases of beer. Enjoy the movie ...
News and weather
IT'S going to be like losing a trusted friend tomorrow when Lynne Russell signs off for the last time as anchor of CNN Headline News. Lynne was a news reporter on Channel 2 locally before moving to Atlanta to join CNN as one of the fledgling network's first anchors 18 years ago. As long as we've watched her do the news, and as young and winsome as she looks, it's hard to believe Russell is 54 ... A generation younger -- and then some -- is Channel 9's Ku'ualoha Taylor. I've never met her, but on screen she looks like a million dollars. She was pictured with that winning smile of hers in this week's Midweek, and wouldn't you just know that she's with a drop-dead gorgeous guy. Figures! ...THE 2,500 guests attending the grand opening of the Academy's Luce Pavilion Complex really got juiced up. Let me explain. It's not that they were drinking booze, but volunteers served up more than 50 gallons of juice (and 6,000 cookies) to guests there to see the art exhibit and marvel at John Hara's kamaaina architecture. Incidentally, Saturday and Sunday will be free admission days for the Hawaiian Ho'ike Festival celebrating the arts of Hawaii. There'll be music, theater, craft demonstrations, etc. ...
The Buck stops here
ON the talk show hosted by Mike Buck on KGU, there was a variation on toilet humor the other day. Buck quoted a survey on his show stating that Americans spend an average of one hour a day in the bathroom. Buck used the Hawaiian word, lua, and subsequent callers commenting on the survey called it the John, potty, then ladies', gents', powder room and the race was on. Buck ended up with 51 different ways to refer to the room in which we spend two weeks a year ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com